The old InterActive Corp. (IACI), soon to be broken up into five companies, is partly staying together in at least one respect: They'll be bound togther via an ad network. IAC says ad inventory across three of the five companies -- the "new IAC," Interval TicketMaster, and LendingTree -- will be sold together as part of a network after the breakup. The network will be managed by IAC Advertising Solutions president Rich Stalzer, who told AdAge inventory across the sites reach 57 million unique visitors a month.
What's IAC's play? Separating their collective audience into nine "cubes": young people 18-34, men, women, "affluents," parents, active shoppers, active travelers, homeowners, and sports fans. The network could target those that researched high-end restaurants on CitySearch, declared six-figure incomes on Match.com, or searched for an expensive home on RealEstate.com. Sounds great. And sounds like another niche ad network, one of an estimated 400 now clamoring for advertiser attention.
Related:
Ringleader Scores IAC Mobile Ad Deal
WSJ, IAC (Finally) Launch FiLife Personal Finance Site
Old Media Ads Down. What About Ad Networks
Repackaging the solutions into consumer friendly sub packages that are easy to digest and powerful to implement. The very core feature is behavioral targeting and this way they can provide more targeting advantage for advertisers.
I personally love the way they package/brand the new features. Very elegant and easy to comprehend.
The more interesting question is why are they doing this now since behavioral targeting has been around for an awful long time? There is a void in terms of creativity/innovation in online advertising and that brings us to the next question -
What's next after behavioral targeting?
It's going be something exciting!
Best regards,
Darren Lee
http://www.adexcel.com